Sex and reproductive health, or just women’s health in general, is often talked about in whispers and muted voices in our society. But with increasing access to information in this era of the Internet, things are changing.
Last month, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation released a video named “Decoding SRHR” (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights), exploring university students’ awareness of the taboo surrounding sexual and reproductive health.
“Every youth has a world of questions, and while this generation has access to the Internet, they often get misled by incorrect, misleading information,” says Farhtheeba Rahat Khan, who leads SNV’s project Working With Women. “They don't have a proper guidance to inform what’s wrong and right.”
This awareness seems to exist among the youth. “Basically, if you’re not being educated about this issue by someone legitimate, then you’re going to get enlightened by wrong sources,” one of the students said in the video.
“We need to break the silence. We need to ensure proper environment for them to ask questions. When the environment is right, they will ask,” added Farhtheeba. “The silence must be broken, so that the right people can ask questions to the right people, and have access to the right information.”
The four-minute long video featured students as well as professors at a seminar organised by SNV at North South University (NSU) in January. The event was hosted to break the taboo surrounding sexual and reproductive health.
The seminar, where Dr Shuchi Karim and Dr Nazneen Akhter presented keynote papers, aimed to break the taboo of open conversations of sex – and it already seems to be working.
“We should not be ashamed of this issue,” said one of the students. “This way, we can overcome the challenges we are facing regarding SRHR.”
“We should raise our awareness about this issue from a point of personal willingness, and not just through seminars,” opined another.
Mushfiqua Zaman Satiar, advisor, SRHR and Gender at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with Professor Dr Gour Gobinda Goswami, vice chancellor (in-charge) at NSU, and Professor Dr GU Ahsan, dean, School of Health and Life Sciences of NSU, were also present in the seminar.
The video, which was released for the World SRHR Day in early February, is relevant today as numerous programmes across the country have been organised to mark International Women’s Day. There are various issues surrounding women’s struggles, successes, health, empowerment - and sexual and reproductive health should been regarded as of equal importance.
Often, women are more shy to discuss these issues, that too in a public setting. The number of women who spoke in the video against the number of men is testament to how much more of a tabooed issue it is for women than for men.
“If you see the crowd that came for the event, less than 30% were female,” says Farhtheeba. “Women are still silenced and need access to information and service points. There should be gender-parity and a female-friendly environment created so girls and women can have access to right information, by the right people, at the right time.”
